"What has that faded beauty done, then?"
"Carried many a thousand of our money to bank for us, Boyee. That"s the ad. that made the business."
"Did you design it?"
"Every word and every line, except that I got a cheap artist to touch up the drawing a little. Then I plunged. When that copy went out, we had just fifty thousand dollars in the world, you and I. Before it had been running three months, I"d spent one hundred thousand dollars more than we owned, in the newspapers, and had to borrow money right and left to keep the manufacturing and bottling plant up to the orders. It was a year before we could see clear sailing, and by that time we were pretty near quarter of a million to the good. Talk about ads. that pull! It pulled like a mule-team and a traction engine and a fifty-cent painless dentist all in one. I"m still using that copy, in the kidney season."
"Do kidneys have seasons?"
"Kidney troubles do."
"I"d have thought such diseases wouldn"t depend on the time of year."
"Maybe they don"t, actually," admitted the other. "Maybe they"re just crowded out of the public mind by the pressure of other sickness in season, like rheumatism in the early winter, and pneumonia in the late.
But there"s no doubt that the kidney season comes in with the changes of the spring. That"s one of my discoveries, too. I tell you, Boyee, I"ve built my success on things like that. It"s psychology: that"s what it is. That"s what you"ve got to learn, if you"re going into the concern."
"I"m ready, Dad. It sounds interesting. More so than I"d have thought."
"Interesting! It"s the very heart and core of the trade." Dr. Surtaine leaned forward, to tap with an earnest finger on his son"s knee, a picture of expository enthusiasm. "Here"s the theory. You see, along about March or April people begin to get slack-nerved and out-of-sortsy.
They don"t know what ails "em, but they think there"s something. Well, one look at that ad. sets "em wondering if it isn"t their kidneys. After wonder comes worry. He"s the best little worrier in the trade, Old Lame-Boy is. He just pesters folks into taking proper care of themselves. They get Certina, and we get their dollars. And they get their money"s worth, too," he added as an afterthought for Hal"s benefit, "for it"s a mighty good thing to have your kidneys tonicked up at this time of year."
"But, Dad," queried Hal, with an effort of puzzled reminiscence, "in the old days Certina wasn"t a kidney remedy, was it?"
"Not specially. It"s always been _good_ for the kidneys. Good for everything, for that matter. Besides, the formula"s been changed."
"Changed? But the formula"s the vital thing, isn"t it?"
"Yes, yes. Of course. Certainly it"s the vital thing: certainly. But, you see,--well,--new discoveries in medicine and that sort of thing."
"You"ve put new drugs in?"
"Yes: I"ve done that. Buchu, for instance. That"s supposed to be good for the kidneys. Dropped some things out, too. Morphine got sort of a bad name. The muckrakers did that with their magazine articles."
"Of course I don"t pretend to know about such things, Dad. But morphine seems a pretty dangerous thing for people to take indiscriminately."
"Well, it"s out. There ain"t a grain of it in Certina to-day."
"I"m glad of it."
"Oh, I don"t know. It"s useful in its place. For instance, you can"t run a soothing-syrup without it. But when the Pure Food Law compelled us to print the amount of morphine on the label, I just made up my mind that I"d have no government interference in the Certina business, so I dropped the drug."
"Did the law hurt our trade much?"
"Not so far as Certina goes. I"m not even sure it didn"t help. You see, now we can print "Guaranteed under the U.S. Food and Drugs Act" on every bottle. In fact we"re required to."
"What does the guaranty mean?"
"That whatever statement may be on the label is accurate. That"s all.
But the public takes it to mean that the Government officially guarantees Certina to do everything we claim for it," chuckled Dr.
Surtaine. "It"s a great card. We"ve done more business under the new formula than we ever did under the old."
"What is the formula now?"
"Prying into the secrets of the trade?" chuckled the elder man.
"But if I"m coming into the shop, to learn--"
"Right you are, Boyee," interrupted his father buoyantly. "There"s the formula for making profits." He swept his hand about in a s.p.a.cious circle, grandly indicating the advertis.e.m.e.nt-bedecked walls. "There"s where the brains count. Come along," he added, jumping up; "let"s take a turn around the joint."
Every day, Dr. Surtaine explained to his son, he made it a practice to go through the entire plant.
"It"s the only way to keep a business up to mark. Besides, I like to know my people."
Evidently he did know his people and his people knew and strongly liked him. So much Hal gathered from the offhand and cheerily friendly greetings which were exchanged between the head of the vast concern and such employees, important or humble, as they chanced to meet in their wanderings. First they went to the printing-plant, the Certina Company doing all its own printing; then to what Dr. Surtaine called "the literary bureau."
"Three men get out all our circulars and advertising copy," he explained in an aside. "One of "em gets five thousand a year; but even so I have to go over all his stuff. If I could teach him to write ads. like I do it myself, I"d pay him ten thousand--yes, twenty thousand. I"d have to, to keep him. The circulars they do better; but I edit those, too. What about that name for the new laxative pills, Con? Hal, I want you to meet Mr. Conover, our chief ad.-man."
Conover, a dapper young man with heavy eye-gla.s.ses, greeted Hal with some interest, and then turned to the business in hand.
"What"d you think of "Anti-Pellets"?" he asked. "Anti, opposed to, you know. In the sub-line, tell what they"re opposed to: indigestion, appendicitis, and so on."
"Don"t like it," returned Dr. Surtaine abruptly. "Anti-Ralgia"s played that to death. Lemme think, for a moment."
Down he plumped into Conover"s chair, seized a pencil and made tentative jabs at a sheet of paper. "Pellets, pellets," he muttered. Then, in a kind of subdued roar, "I"ve got it! I"ve got it, Con! "Pro-Pellets."
Tell people what they"re for, not what they"re against. Besides, the name has got the idea of pro-pulsion. See? Pro-Pellets, pro-pel!" His big fist shot forward like a piston-rod. "Just the idea for a laxative.
Eh?"
"Fine!" agreed Conover, a little ruefully, but with genuine appreciation of the fitness of the name. "I wish I"d thought of it."
"You did--pretty near. Anyway, you made me think of it. Anti-Pellets, Pro-Pellets: it"s just one step. Like as not you"d have seen it yourself if I hadn"t b.u.t.ted in. Now, go to it, and figure out your series on that."
With kindly hands he pushed Conover back into his chair, gave him a hearty pat on the shoulder, and pa.s.sed on. Hal began to have an inkling of the reasons for his father"s popularity.
"Have we got other medicines besides Certina?" he asked.
"Bless you, yes! This little laxative pills business I took over from a concern that didn"t have the capital to advertise it. Across the hall there is the Sure Soother department. That"s a teething syrup: does wonders for restless babies. On the floor below is the Cranicure Mixture for headaches, Rub-it-in Balm for rheumatism and bruises, and a couple of small side issues that we"re not trying to push much. We"re handling Stomachine and Relief Pills from here, but the pills are made in Cincinnati, and we market "em under another trade name."
"Stomachine is for stomach troubles, I a.s.sume," said Hal. "What are the Relief Pills?"
"Oh, a female remedy," replied his father carelessly. "Quite a booming little trade, too. Take a look at the Certina collection of testimonials."
In a room like a bank vault were great ma.s.ses of testimonial letters, all listed and double-catalogued by name and by disease.
"Genuine. Provably genuine, every one. There"s romance in some of "em.
And grat.i.tude; good Lord! Sometimes when I look "em over, I wonder I don"t run for President of the United States on a Certina platform."
From the testimonial room they went to the art department where Dr.
Surtaine had some suggestions to make as to bill-board designs.